


Try Again

by evieeden



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes & Peggy Carter Friendship, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Post-Credits Scene, Confusion, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 20:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8767642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evieeden/pseuds/evieeden
Summary: Bucky goes back to the Smithsonian where his memories threaten to reveal themselves.Advent fic written for 5th December.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 5th December.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fic and cheers for reading.

The Asset needed information. It needed clarification.

It had already been to the Smithsonian to find out more about the man on the bridge – Captain America – and had come face to face with a display sporting its own face.

_James Buchanan Barnes._

That’s what it had been called. That’s what Captain America – Steve Grant Rogers, other displays called him – had said was his name.

 _Bucky_. A nickname – implying that they were friends.

“Best friends since childhood,” the talking voice told him. “Inseparable on the playground and battlefield.”

Except they had been separated.

The Asset’s cognitive functions weren’t working as well as they should be since he had left the bank, left Hydra and his handlers – most of them were burning over the Potomac anyway – and left on his own to try and work out who he was and why the man on the – (no!) Capta- Steve told him that he was his friend. He knew they had been separated. It said so on the display. They were separated when he was in Azzano and Captain America had to come and rescue him. They had been separated when he died.

The display told him that. He had died and the Captain was frozen for years. So clearly not inseparable.

But not happy either, he thought.

Or at least, that’s how it seemed to him from the information he had available.

He couldn’t remember all of it, but he knew that Hydra meant pain, missions, cold, and the look on Captain America’s face in the photos that were blown up for the display of the man in modern times showed a stoic, serious face. One of the things that the Asset was trained to do was analyse face and body language for visual clues to indicate mental state. It was a valuable tool for missions and, in this case, it enabled him to see the way the other man’s shoulders hunched, as if he was trying to shrink in on himself, and the downward turn of his mouth in photos that indicated sadness…or loneliness.

Emotions were confusing to the Asset. He understood them on a fundamental level, but hadn’t felt anything but pain and cold for so long that he often confused the feelings that now seemed to sweep through him, making him act irrationally every other minute.

There was one clip that he spent too long over.

Him…the Asset… James Buchanan Barnes and Steve Rogers…the man on the bridge… standing together, shoulder to shoulder and laughing. His mouth moved silently on the crackled film – hard to make out the words through lip-reading – but it didn’t take much to see that Barnes was the one who had made Rogers laugh, made him smile.

A gloved finger reached out to trace over the other man’s face. That smile.

The hush that had fallen over him as he watched the video faded and noise intruded on the Asset once more. Nearby over his left shoulder, he could hear some people – two women, old, no threat – huffing about him moving along.

He shot both of them a glare, but spun on his heel and left the captivating film behind. It wouldn’t do well for people to start looking too closely his way.

The Asset wandered carefully through the rest of the exhibit, but jerked to a halt when in the distance, he heard a voice that sounded familiar.

He shook his head and then shook it again. The voice was wrong. It was… wrong. He shouldn’t have been able to hear it.

Unbidden, his feet wandered towards the voice. There was a darkened room off one side of the main exhibit and when the Asset slipped inside, he saw the face that the voice belonged to.

_Carter, Margaret Elizabeth. Known as ‘Peggy’. Member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Founding member of SHIELD. Parents, deceased. One elder brother, deceased. Known allies: Stark, Howard, deceased. Jarvis, Edwin, deceased. Rogers, Steven Grant, ‘Captain America’, active. Current residence: Sunnyside Retirement Complex. Medical conditions: advanced Alzheimer’s._

He blinked. The woman in the video was younger than the woman he had been briefed on previously.

But she was familiar… more familiar than notes on the page.

Her facial expressions, the lilt of her voice, the no-nonsense accent.

She was describing the exploits of Captain America when he rescued the 107th from Azzano – shivers ran down his back at the name of the camp – and a part of him knew how this recording went, knew exactly the moment where she paused and shook her head at how stupid Rogers’ actions were.

Carter paused and shook her head and it dawned on the Asset at that moment that she was familiar because he knew her.

He _knew_ her.

Well, _Barnes_ must have known her in any case.

She was an… ally? _A friend_ , a small voice whispered.

The clip ended and the small room plunged into darkness. There were whispers as people shuffled about and left. Not knowing where else to go, the Asset slipped onto a bench available for people watching the film. There was one other man in the room with him – tall male, late 20s, medium threat – and it wouldn’t do to draw attentions to himself by lurking in the corner of the room.

A new film started, Carter speaking again, but older this time, the lines on her face deeper than in the last clip, and the Asset allowed himself to sink into the familiar patterns of her voice.

It took a while, mainly because it was done so subtly for the Asset to notice that the other man in the road was paying more attention to him than he was to the video playing.

He tried not to tense as he took in the details of the man, beyond the obvious.

Still tall, still broad, but the cut of his shirt and jacket hid the musculature of his body. A ball cap and glasses hid the man’s face from the Asset, which immediately made him nervous. He mentally upgraded the threat level the man might have.

 

The man’s scrutiny meant that the Asset could no longer enjoy the familiar tones of Peggy Carter’s voice and he froze, his hand automatically veering towards the knife holster on his belt when the man suddenly stood up.

He began to draw the knife out when the man turned his face towards him.

“Bucky?”

He didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything, didn’t know how to react.

The man – Steve Rogers, in disguise – took a step towards him, but froze when he saw the Asset flinch.

“Hey, Buck.” His voice was low and gentle. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just… can I sit with you?”

The Asset thought about it. He thought about the rage he felt against this man on the helicarrier over the Potomac. He thought about the way he had made the man laugh on that film clip.

He nodded.

The man sat down next to him. After a few minutes, he hesitantly reached out and laid his hand over the Asset’s. The Asset twisted his hand upwards – reflex action – and wound their fingers together.

And they sat in the dark and let Peggy Carter’s voice roll over them.


End file.
